And Death Replied
by imkerfuffled
Summary: Albus thinks his life can't get any better with Gellert at his side, but he is blinded by everything this boy has to offer. Everyone else can see what Gellert is really like, as Aberforth tries very hard to tell him. Albus refuses to listen. It takes tragedy for him to finally open his eyes and see. Not romance, just angst.


**AN: The title of this piece was taken from this wonderful quote from Anonymous: "Life asked Death, 'Why do people love me and hate you?' and Death replied, 'Because you are a beautiful lie, and I am the honest truth.' " I thought that was really fitting for Arianna's chapter in her brother's story.**

**This was partly inspired by the passage in HBP when Dumbledore drank the potion and started shouting (what seemed at the time to be) nonsense. Except it wasn't. ****I sort of made it a personal challenge to include as much of what he said as possible in this story.**

**Oh, and kudos to everyone who catches the Snape references. I swear the first one was an accident!  
**

**And now cue the tissues. You've been warned.**

* * *

"Albus," Aberforth said abruptly, "We need to have a _talk_."

The older boy closed his book with a snap and gave his brother a piercing look over his glasses. He stood over Albus, his arms folded over his chest, and a look on his face that plainly said he wouldn't move until Albus did as he wanted. Beside Albus, Gellert set down his own book and leveled a glare at the grubby boy who was the exact replica of Albus. "Shove off," Gellert said, waving his arm to indicate the stacks upon stacks of ancient, leather-bound volumes strewn across the room. "Can't you see we're busy?"

Aberforth did nothing to acknowledge him, but continued to glower at Albus in silence. After a minute of trying to stare him down, made difficult by the fact that he was sitting and Aberforth standing, Albus sighed irritably and stood up from his bed. "This will only take a moment," he said to Gellert, moving to open the door.

"No." said Aberforth brusquely, turning his glare to Gellert. "I want him to hear too."

"Alright." Albus sat back down warily with a glance at his friend. Gellert was now staring at Aberforth with a blankly hostile expression that Albus didn't like the look of.

"I know what you two are planning," Aberforth stated after a while.

Gellert's face stayed blank, and his voice matched his expression when he said, "So you're spying on us, are you?"

"If you want to call it that," admitted Aberforth, "But I think I've got a right to."

"And why is that?"

"You're in my house. You're turning my brother into a Muggle-hating, pureblood fanatic who believes in fairytales. _Damn right, we've been spying on you_!" Aberforth's fists were clenched at his side, and Albus was surprised how little incitement it had taken to turn this into a shouting match.

"It's all for the Muggles' own good, Aberforth!" Albus jumped up, trying to explain, but his brother only spun on him shouting, "You _shut up_!"

"I'm sick of you!" he continued, "I'm sick of all your twisted little plans and ideas. They'll never work, and if I thought for a moment that they would, I'd get myself right out of the country!"

"Now wait just a moment!" Gellert cut in angrily, "This is all to stop things like what happened to your sister from happening again! And when—"

A positively dangerous look crept across Aberforth's face, and he said slowly, "You leave Arianna out of this." His glasses flashed blindly in the firelight, reflecting the flickering flames in an eerie way.

"You stupid boy!" shouted Gellert, but once again, Aberforth cut him off, apparently changing his mind.

"But if you want to talk about her, so be it," he growled, "Because I've found a flaw in your perfect little plan. It's a pretty big flaw too, so you'd better give it all up right now, because you can't move her, she's in no fit state, you can't take her with you, wherever it is you're planning to go, when you're making your clever speeches, trying to whip yourselves up a following…"

Something akin to Aberforth's expression showed on Gellert's face, but something more cunning, more… predatory. Albus didn't like it at all. "Gellert, stop. I don't want—"

What exactly he didn't want, he wasn't sure of, but he never had to say it, as Gellert put up a hand and said, "No, let me deal with this." The cold blazing look in his eyes grew only more prominent as he continued, "Don't you understand? Once we've led the wizards out of hiding, once we've taught the Muggles their place, Arianna won't _have _to be kept hidden. We'll be the glorious young leaders of the revolution; people will bow down to us! We won't need to be held back by stupid _laws_, we'll be able to do whatever we want with our power. We'll make our _own _laws, so Arianna can be free."

"Don't pretend you care about my sister, Grindelwald," Aberforth said, obviously disgusted, "Don't try to pretend you care about anything but yourself… and _you_, Albus!" he turned on his brother, who took a step back in alarm, "He doesn't even care about you! 'Glorious young leaders of the revolution,' he says? There can only ever be one king, Albus! You know that, you just don't want to believe it!" He grabbed his arm roughly, glaring into his brother's eyes.

"Let me go," Albus muttered, tugging his arm away, trying to keep the flicker of fear out of his eyes. He knew it was unreasonable, being frightened of this scruffy, goat-loving boy, but he had seen Aberforth get just as wild as Arianna sometimes.

Gellert, at the same time, had leaped over his pile of books and hauled Aberforth up by his collar. The look on his face had grown past predatory into something much more feral.

"You stupid, stupid boy!" he screamed into Aberforth's face. "You don't understand anything!" He shoved the boy away, leaving him sprawled on the floor, but Aberforth shot right back up again.

"Oh really?" he shouted, "Then how are you both going to own your precious, imaginary Hallows, eh? There aren't suddenly six of them, are there?"

"Don't try to lecture me on what you know nothing about, boy!" Gellert screamed.

"You're a greedy, selfish, power-hungry, scheming, manipulative, evil little—" Aberforth suddenly lost control, as Albus knew he would. "GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!" he screamed snatching up a book and throwing it at Gellert's livid face.

"Hey!" Albus shouted, catching the book in midair, "Don't throw these! And it's my house, not yours, you can't give orders here!"

"I DON'T GIVE A BLOODY DAMN WHAT YOU THINK!" Aberforth whipped his wand out of his pocket, but Gellert was faster.

"_CRUCIO!" _

"No! Stop it!" shouted Albus frantically, as his brother crumpled to the floor, screaming in agony. "What are you doing? Make it stop! Gellert—!" But Gellert had finally cracked, his face was contorted into a look of fury so wild and crazy it was inhuman. For the first time Albus was able to picture him as the boy at Durmstrang who had sent a little girl to the hospital for life.

"_Expeliarmus!_" He hadn't realized he had drawn his wand, but as Gellert's flew across the room he spun to face Albus.

"So you want to fight me, do you?" he growled, snatching his wand up from the floor, where Aberforth had slumped, panting, on in the wood paneling.

Albus backed up another step, terrified by the wild look in his friend's eyes. "No, no no no! I can't," he babbled, his breaths coming short and fast, "I can't, don't make me… I don't want to…" That hadn't been his intention! He had only wanted Gellert to stop hurting Aberforth…

Gellert slashed his wand through the air, and Albus had to react fast to parry the spell, stumbling backward as he did it again, and again, fueled by his fury.

_BAM! _Gellert had to duck as a jet of light shot over his ear, and he spun around to face Aberforth, standing now with a look of grim determination on his face.

And then the three of them were dueling at a ferocious pace. There was hardly time to finish one spell before blocking another, and through it all Albus couldn't stop thinking, _This is my fault, all my fault! Please, make it stop, make it stop and I swear I'll never, never again… _

The door slammed open to reveal Arianna, standing in her nightgown looking anxiously at the scene in front of her.

Gellert turned on her.

"NO!" Albus screamed, blasting him backward while Aberforth shouted, "Stay out of this, Arianna!"

But she didn't listen to him. Running into the bedroom, she snatched up anything she could and started hurling it at Gellert, trying, in her own way, to help. A wind was whipping up in the room, sending books tumbling from their stacks and a pile of papers in the corner flapping around the three duelers. Arianna was going into one of her fits, but neither brother could do anything to help her; it took all they could to keep Gellert at bay in his rage.

He blasted Albus back with a well-aimed curse and leveled his wand on Aberforth—

"Don't hurt them, don't hurt them, please!" Albus cried, blocking Gellert's curse from the floor, "Please, it's all my fault, hurt me instead!" But Gellert immobilized him with one sweep of his wand, and Aberforth with another. He grabbed Arianna by her hair, yanking her an inch off the ground. She screamed, beating him with her fists, but he just froze her too. Albus could do nothing but watch in petrified horror as she stared with wide, terrified eyes at him while his former best friend raised his wand to her head.

"How would you like it if I decided to try out this new spell I've learned?" Gellert said slowly, a manic smile on his face, "It's called _Avada…_"

Aberforth screamed incoherently, and Albus found himself shouting, pleading again desperately, "Please, please, please, no… not that, not that, I'll do anything!"

"_Anything_?" Gellert asked slyly, snapping immediately from rage and resentment to cunning calmness, "You'll pretend nothing happened between us? You'll continue helping me search for Hallows? And your _brother_ won't interfere anymore? Nor _her_?" he spat the words out, and shook Arianna by her blond hair. She gave a frightened squeak. "You'll do… anything?"

Albus nodded, slowly regaining the ability to move. Aberforth glared at Gellert, but did the same.

Gellert slowly relaxed his grip on Arianna, but kept his wand pressed against the side of her head, "Then when I let you two go you'll do nothing to stop me? You will do anything I tell you to?"

"Anything," whispered Albus.

With a self-satisfied smirk, Gellert lowered his wand and flicked it at the two brothers, who were immediately released, stumbling slightly, from his spell. Aberforth's wand whipped up.

"Don't," Albus warned, throwing his hand up, and grudgingly Aberforth let it fall again. Gellert smirked.

But suddenly, something happened that Aberforth could never have caused. There was a gigantic explosion—with no apparent source—and all three boys were blasted into the walls. Albus was just climbing back up when, in a flash, everything not bolted to the floor rushed at Gellert. Books, loose pages, quills, old inkwells, an owl cage—it all clung to him like a swarm of bees. Even the bed Albus had landed on started scooting slowly towards him. The large bookcase tipped over toward Gellert, and he had to leap aside to get out of its way. With a scream of rage, he blasted everything away and rounded on Albus, but it wasn't Albus who created the explosion. It wasn't Aberforth either.

It could only have been Arianna, finally loosing complete control over her magic. Gellert didn't realize just how powerful she was.

And now they were dueling again, faster and more furious than before. There wasn't even time to think now before throwing another spell out. Albus couldn't see if any of his curses hit their mark, he was casting them so quickly and wildly. All his concentration was spent on ducking, spinning, and jumping out of the way of Gellert's curses and occasionally casting one of his own. He couldn't even tell what Aberforth was doing next to him. Nothing existed for Albus anymore but himself and Grindelwald. Nothing mattered. Albus knew that Grindelwald intended it to end only when one of them was dead, that there was no stopping the insane, wild gleam in his former friend's eyes.

_And to think… to think I deluded myself into believing he was right,_ thought Albus, _But Aberforth had it right all along, he is a manipulative, power-hungry, evil—_

Aberforth was shouting at him, telling him to stop, his face twisted into some unknown emotion, but Albus didn't have time to listen to him. Now Aberforth had grabbed him by the arm and was shaking him violently, but once again Albus just shoved him off. Blood was pounding in his ears. All his energy was bent towards the duel, towards getting at Grindelwald, hurting him in some way—he didn't care how.

"ALBUS, STOP!" This time when Aberforth seized his arm he listened. This time he turned around, with the full intention of shouting at his brother, of hexing him in a blind rage for getting between him and Grindelwald, for distracting him, for standing in the way of his one true goal at the moment.

This time he spun around, his wand raised…

_This time _he saw it, what Aberforth had been trying, _desperately, _to get him to see from the very beginning.

This time he froze. He didn't even notice when his wand dropped, with a clatter, from his hand. Aberforth, Grindelwald, and everything else just melted into the periphery. All sound dwindled to murky silence in his ears, save his heart pounding a brutal staccato in the forefront. But even that slowed down… down… as time itself seemed to fade away to nothing.

_No… _

_Arianna… _

Only later did he remember Grindelwald's terrified expression as he realized what he had done, his robes swirling around him in juddering slow motion, the muffled _bang_ of Apparation.

Because, just then, he couldn't tear his eyes away from the small form smeared across the floor.

_Arianna…_

Unbidden, his own words swam into the back of his mind.

_'I don't want…' _

He hadn't known, at the time.

_I don't want… this._

Ultimately, it didn't matter who had cast the fatal spell… and at the end—in her unstable condition—even something as innocent as a Stunning Spell could have done the deed. Both Albus and Grindelwald had progressed to spells much Darker, much more permanent, than a simple _Stupefy _before that deadly duel had come to its end_. _

For all Albus knew, she could have been dead before either of them had fired off a curse. It was possible that she had blown her own magical 'fuse' when she caused the explosion.

But that didn't matter.

The blood was still on Albus' hands, for bringing Grindelwald into his home, into his heart… for trusting him.

_I killed her._

_I killed my sister._

_Arianna... dead…_

_I wish…_

_I wish I were dead._


End file.
